Theater preview: 'Springer’ is used to the hot seat

Wednesday

Apr 29, 2009 at 12:01 AMApr 29, 2009 at 3:04 AM

What’s all the fuss about? Well, “Jerry Springer: The Opera,” offers up about 200 expletives), blasphemy, and tap-dancing members of the KKK. In other words, it’s not far from Springer’s talk show. But an opera that starts as a (perhaps somewhat predictable) parody slowly turns darker and, depending on your point of view, more objectionable. In the second half, all hell breaks loose. Jerry is sent to Hades where he must emcee a reconciliation between Satan and Jesus.

Alexander Stevens

It looks like the opening-night performance of the SpeakEasy Stage Company’s production of “Jerry Springer: The Opera” will be met with a protest. Some people, it turns out, just don’t have a sense of humor about putting Jesus in a diaper. But SpeakEasy producing artistic director Paul Daigneault already knows exactly how he’s going to handle the controversy – the same way many other artists who are committed to their vision would face a band of angry dissenters: He’s gonna hide.

Just before Friday’s opening, Daigneault plans to slip into the Boston Center for the Arts theater to tweak the show with one final rehearsal, and then he’s not going to come out until the show’s over.

He’s not scared; he said he just believes that ignoring the protest is the best way to prevent it from influencing his direction of the show.

“I don’t look at it as a comment on religion,” says Daigneault, describing his take on the sometimes-obscene, sometimes-vulgar, but often very funny “Jerry Springer.” “It’s just good, satirical fun.” It’s not the first time that the show has elicited a strong public reaction. Although the opera was a hit in London, news that it was going to be broadcast on the BBC reportedly drew 47,000 complaints. No wonder the show has tiptoed into the U.S., with only regional productions in cities such as Chicago and Washington. Mild protests have followed the opera in the U.S., and the Boston Center for the Arts is braced for more of the same, as a group called America Needs Fatima is calling for a “peaceful and prayerful protest” outside the BCA on Friday night.

“I understand their feelings,” says Veronique LaMelle, executive director of the Boston Center for the Arts. “But I also understand the right of everyone to have a voice, including the right of artists to have a creative voice.” She’s notified the police of the group’s stated intention.

So what’s all the fuss about? Well, aside from Our Savior in Huggies, the opera (created by Richard Thomas and Stewart Lee) offers up about 200 expletives (the best one comes in the form of a duet that lasts about three minutes), blasphemy, and tap-dancing members of the KKK. In other words, it’s not far from Springer’s talk show. But an opera that starts as a (perhaps somewhat predictable) parody slowly turns darker and, depending on your point of view, more objectionable. In the second half, all hell breaks loose. Jerry is sent to Hades where he must emcee a reconciliation between Satan and Jesus.

“I like how the show pushes boundaries,” says Daigneault. “It puts ordinary people in an operatic world. Yes, it’s vulgar at times, but it’s still very human.”

He should know; he’s Jerry Springer. Or at least he plays Jerry in the opera.

Fennimore, raised a Catholic, thinks that anyone who has the time to protest could probably spend that time in ways that are more helpful to humanity. And he said “Jerry Springer: The Opera” is much more than a provocative romp. He thinks its message is actually quite affirming.

“Everything that’s living is holy,” he says, paraphrasing the show. “Nobody’s perfect, we’re all just human.”

Fennimore, who has the only non-singing role, has been around the Boston theater scene for decades. He’s been working as a professional actor since 1986, “with only two weeks on unemployment,” he adds with justifiable pride.

But the cornerstone of his Boston theater work has been his long run (7,013 performances) with “Shear Madness,” the comic whodunit that just can’t be killed.

“Everyone talks about Yul Brynner’s long run in ‘The King and I,’” says Fennimore. “But I passed him a long time ago.”

Fennimore may be a stage vet, but his new role in “Jerry Springer” has exercised muscles he hasn’t used in years. He says he’s in awe of the talented ensemble that surrounds him in the show, adding that he’s a little surprised he was cast. But, in fact, he may have landed the role months ago, when he went to an audition for the SpeakEasy’s “The Seafarer.”

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